学校代码：10270分类号：I561.074学号：202200228

硕士学位论文

石黑一雄科幻作品的生命政治研究

学院：外国语学院

专业：英语语言文学

研究方向：英美文学

研究生姓名：付天琦

指导教师：安婕

完成日期：2 0 2 3年4月On the Biopolitics of Kazuo Ishiguro’s Sci-Fi Works

Written by:Fu Tianqi

Supervised by:An Jie

A Thesis Submitted to

Foreign Languages College

Shanghai Normal University

In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for

The Degree of Master of Arts in

English Language and Literature

April 2023Abstract Shanghai Normal University Master of Arts

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Abstract

Kazuo Ishiguro(1954–)is the most prominent Japanese-British writer in

contemporary literature world,who won the Man Booker Prize(1989)and the Nobel

Prize in Literature(2017).His works are diverse in genre,spanning race,time and

space,and he tends to complete the themes of“memory,time and self-deception”

(Nobel Prize,2017)in the first person unreliable narration.With seemingly

indifference,Ishiguro writes about feelings and thoughts buried deep in individual’s

memory.These two science fictions of Ishiguro,Never Let Me Go(2005)and Klara

and the Sun(2021),predict the proposition of“life”in the post-human era.

With the support of biopolitics theory and on the basis of close reading,this

thesis explores the operation mechanism,path and consequence of negative and

positive biopolitics shown in Kazuo Ishiguro’s two science fictions respectively.

Furthermore,in order to seek a politics of life from discipline and suppression to

symbiosis and openness,the thesis observes individual life at the mercy of political

power.To begin with,Ishiguro’s life and writing features are briefly introduced.The

domestic and foreign researches of two sci-fi works,as well as the concept of

biopolitics are reviewed.The detailed analysis of the text takes life that is excluded

from the threshold as the starting point,and then it leads to the discussion on the

different circumstances under different governance mode.In Never Let Me Go,the

body of the clones is politically separated into bare life,suspended in the state of

exception,and subjected to physical discipline and metal suppression.While in the

mode of antinomy inherent in the immune paradigm,Josie,the girl who receives

genetic promotion in Klara and the Sun,is an immune individual whose life is

protected and destroyed at the same time.Furthermore,the concept of community is

introduced to compare the inclusion and exclusion mechanisms of biopolitics.The

clones experience the exclusive inclusion.Seemingly having a happy childhood and

receiving fine education,they are actually deprived of human rights and reduced to

the Other in vague words and nonviolent norms.Conversely,Josie and her AF Klara

operate in an exclusive inclusion.Although Josie is blocked and inhibited natural

development to defend against any external factors that threaten her,she continuously

widens the boundaries of the community and accepts Klara as a symbiotic Other.

Finally,the exploration goes deeper into pursuit of the meaning of life.The clones are

trained to improve artistic creation ability but still fail to redeem themselves byAbstract Shanghai Normal University Master of Arts

V

searching for“possible”archetype,which leads to the doomed tragic ending,showing

the uselessness under the negative biopolitics.In contrast,Josie realizes a reshaping of

life and gains a new birth.Klara also activates the meditation on life through the

dimension of subject generation.The positive politics based on life is constantly

“becoming”,and it fills the community while focusing on the individual.

Kazuo Ishiguro’s sci-fi works that radiating biopolitics possess a metaphorical

color,and trigger a series of new ideas about life itself and politics.It not only reveals

the possible approaches under different governance modes,but also provides effective

solutions to various realistic dilemmas presented by human life community in

modern.

Key Words：Kazuo Ishiguro;Klara and the Sun;Never Let Me Go;Biopolitics摘要上海师范大学硕士学位论文

VI

摘要

石黑一雄（1954–）是当代文坛最杰出的英籍日裔作家，曾获1989年布克奖

及2017年诺贝尔文学奖。他以淡然的笔调，书写了深埋于个体记忆中的情感与

思考。其作品体裁多样，跨越种族、穿越时空，以第一人称不可靠叙事完成关于

“记忆、时间和欺骗”（Nobel Prize,2017）的主题。《别让我走》（2005）和

《克拉拉与太阳》（2021）这两部石黑的科幻作品预示了后人类时代的生命命题。

本论文以生命政治理论为依托，在文本细读的基础上，探究石黑一雄两部科

幻作品中分别展现的否定性与肯定性生命政治的运作机制、路径及后果，观照政

治权力操控下的个体生命问题，以寻求从规训与压制走向共生与敞开的生命政治。

绪论部分简要介绍石黑一雄的生平和写作特色，并对两部科幻作品的国内外研究

以及生命政治这一概念进行梳理。正文具体分析文本时，首先以两部作品中同被

区分在界槛之外的生命为切入点，讨论生命在不同治理方式之下的不同境遇：《别

让我走》中，克隆人的身体受到了不同程度的身体规训与精神压制，被分离为赤

裸生命的样态，悬置在空间隔离的例外状态中；而在免疫范式内在的二律背反模

式下，《克拉拉与太阳》中接受基因提升的女孩乔西作为免疫个体，同时接受着

对生命的保护和毁灭。随后引入共同体的概念，对比两部作品中生命政治的纳入

与排除机制。克隆人经历着纳入性的排除，他们看似拥有体面的童年、受到良好

的教育，却在监护人模糊的言辞和非暴力的规范中进行着自我约束，以至于被剥

夺了人权，沦为他者和另类。而乔西和她的人工智能伙伴克拉拉运作于排除性的

纳入中，尽管乔西作为提升者阻止和抑制了自身自然的发展，以抵御任何具有威

胁性的外界因素，但同时也在不断地拓宽共同体的边界，接受克拉拉作为共生的

他者。由此，论文最终深入至生命追寻与生命意义问题。克隆人提升自己的艺术

创造能力，梦想寻找自己“可能的原型”以进行自我救赎未果，最终难逃宿命性

的悲剧结局，呈现出否定性生命政治的无用性。相比之下，乔西实现了对生命的

重塑并获得新生，而克拉拉也通过主体生成之维度激活了对生命的思考，这种基

于生命的肯定性生命政治在关注个体的同时充盈了共同体，并不断生成。

石黑一雄这两部辐射生命政治的科幻作品具有隐喻性的色彩，引发了一系列

对生命与政治相关的新思考。不仅展望了不同治理方式下可能的进路，也为人类

生命共同体呈现的各种现实困境提供了有效的解决方案。

关键词：石黑一雄；《克拉拉与太阳》；《别让我走》；生命政治Contents

Chapter One Introduction ........................................................................... 1

1.1 Kazuo Ishiguro and His Sci-Fi Works ............................................... 1

1.2 Literature Review ............................................................................... 3

1.2.1 Related Studies Abroad ................................................................ 3

1.2.2 Related Studies at Home .............................................................. 7

Chapter Two Theoretical Framework ....................................................... 13

2.1 Biopower and Security Regime ....................................................... 13

2.2 Negative Approach to Biopolitics .................................................... 14

2.3 Affirmative Approach to Biopolitics ................................................ 15

Chapter Three From State of Exception to Paradigm of Immunization ... 17

3.1 Overall Repression on the Clones in Never Let Me Go .................. 17

3.1.1 Physical Discipline throughout Life Span ................................. 17

3.1.2 Mental Subjugation in Spatial Isolation ..................................... 20

3.2 Dual Efficacy of Biotechnology in Klara and the Sun .................... 23

3.2.1 Improvement of Material and Spiritual Life .............................. 24

3.2.2 Risk of Weakened Body and Incurable Mortality ...................... 26

Chapter Four From a Community with Threshold to an Open Community

................................................................................................................. 30

4.1 Inclusive Exclusion beneath the Veil in Never Let Me Go ............. 30

4.1.1 Humanizing Education and Proper Rights ................................. 31

4.1.2 Abnormal Regulations and Vague Prohibitions ......................... 33

4.2 Exclusive Inclusion under the Sun in Klara and the Sun ................ 38

4.2.1 Construction of Defense Mechanism by Josie ........................... 38

4.2.2 Acceptance of Klara as the Symbiosis Others ........................... 42

Chapter Five From Pessimistic Ontology to Positive Attempt on Life

Potential ................................................................................................... 48

5.1 Politics over Life in Never Let Me Go ............................................ 48

5.1.1 Failed Messianic Self-redemption ............................................. 49

5.1.2 Final Acceptance of Fatalistic Death ......................................... 53

5.2 Politics of Life in Klara and the Sun ................................................ 57

5.2.1 Remodeling of Life and Transcendent Power ............................ 58

5.2.2 Coexistence of Multiple Life Forms .......................................... 61

Chapter Six Conclusion ............................................................................ 66

References ................................................................................................. 70 Chapter One Shanghai Normal University Master of Arts

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Chapter One Introduction

1.1 Kazuo Ishiguro and His Sci-Fi Works

Kazuo Ishiguro(1954–)is one of the most distinguished writers in the

contemporary literary world.He was born in Ngasaki,Japan,and moved to Britain

with his family in 1960.Since publishing his first novel A Pale View of Hills(1982),

he was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize four times for An Artist of the Floating

World(1986),When We Were Orphans(2000)and Never Let Me Go,and won the

prize for The Remains of the Day(1989).In 2017,Ishiguro was awarded the Nobel

Prize in Literature,being described as a writer who“in novels of great emotional

force,has uncovered the abyss beneath our illusory sense of connection with the

world”(Nobel Prize,2017).

As his father,a physical oceanographer was invited for research at the National

Institution of Oceanography,Ishiguro moved to Guildford,Surrey with his family

when he was five.As a teenager,he enjoyed music of Joni Mitchell and Bob Dylan,

and was initially intended to become a professional songwriter.He confirmed that

lyric writing had enormous influence on his writing,for the meaning of lyric“must

not be self-sufficient on the page.It has to be oblique”(Kellaway,2015).In 1978,

Ishiguro graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in English and philosophy at the

University of Kent and Canterbury.After a year of writing fiction and doing social

work,he enrolled at the University of East Anglia,where he studied under the

guidance of Malcolm Bradbury and Angela Carter on the UEA Creative Writing

Course.

As a Japanese-British writer,Ishiguro shares temperament of two cultures.His

first two novels were set in Japan,but he admitted in the interview with Kenzaburo

Oe1(1991)that the Japanese settings were imaginary:“I grew up with a very strong

image in my head of this other country,a very important other country to which I had

a strong emotional tie...In England I was all the time building up this picture in my

head,an imaginary Japan”.But still,growing up in a Japanese-speaking family with

Japanese parents,Ishiguro was influenced with Japanese culture and kept connecting

with Japanese values more or less.Also,Japanese writer Tanizaki Junichiro as well as

1Kenzaburo Oe(1935–)is a Japanese writer and a major figure in contemporary Japanese literature.His works

deal with political,social and philosophical issues,including nuclear weapons,nuclear power,social

non-conformism,and existentialism.Oe was awarded the 1994 Nobel Prize in Literature for creating“an imagined

world,where life and myth condense to form a disconcerting picture of the human predicament today”.Chapter One Shanghai Normal University Master of Arts

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film directors Ozu Yasujiro and Naruse Mikio have been a significant influence for

Ishiguro(Mason,1989).

Without being limited by his race or nationality,Ishiguro develops cosmopolitan

writing,picturing vision of life that is embodied important meaning to people of all

cultures around the world(Ishiguro,2013).He has dabbled in 19th century manor

fiction,modern detective fiction,fantasy legends,postmodern stream-of

consciousness and science fiction.Just as the restrained English butler Stevens in The

Remains of the Day,his characters often show their hidden emotions secretly and

slowly when falling into memory,which makes Ishiguro’s unique unreliable narration.

Ishiguro stated that memories are the filter through which we view our lives,and

vague memories provide opportunities for self-deception.Apart from memory,time

and lifelong deception are also central themes in Kazuo Ishiguro’s works.For him,

self-deception is a protective apparatus to escape sad things.People struggle with

their memories all the time.But protagonists in Ishiguro’s recent works tend to

cherish their memories and deny the future.

However,instead of dwelling on the past and achievement,Ishiguro is eager to

deal with important and urgent problems of the times with scientific writing.Never

Let Me Go and Klara and the Sun,two novels with a touch of science fiction,are

consisted with his narrative style,predicting social problems and moral challenge in

the distant future.He said,“I suppose I write out of a sort of fear of what might

happen to me rather than what has happened to me”(Shaffer&Wong,2008).In this

case,it is not surprising that he looks ahead through scientific writing.Ishiguro

believes that science fiction has become an important part of literature in an era of

rapid technological change.The great changes brought by the development of science

and technology are unavoidable themes in literature.Never Let Me Go and Klara and

the Sun both explore themes of love and death in a sci-fi format.Never Let Me Go set

the story in the parallel world of 1980s and 1990s in the UK,where cloning has been

legalized by the government.After spending a relatively calm childhood with

mysterious rules in the boarding school Hailsham,the clones will donate their organs

again and again until they die out.Kathy,Ruth and Tommy,three clones grow up

together,float and struggle between the past and present,life and death.Finally,after

making a series of efforts to continue their life,they all meet the predetermined fate of

death.By contrast,Klara and the Sun,a story with topics of artificial intelligence(AF)

and gene editing,is more of a sad children’s book.Artificial Friend Klara is aChapter One Shanghai Normal University Master of Arts

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solar-powered Artificial Intelligence robot designed to accompany children with

extreme empathy,keen observation and extraordinary understanding.In the process of

caring for Josie,a human girl,Klara gradually learns about unique aspects of human

nature.By praying for the sun to save Josie,she achieves a happy ending.Ishiguro

himself has commented that the themes of two novels are not so much repetition as

response.After seventeen years,he has changed to some extent,and so has his

attitude to technology.If Never Let Me Go is sad and cruel,then Klara and the Sun is

full of hope and optimism.But they do discuss the same topic,namely whether human

beings have souls?What is the meaning of human existence?And what does it mean

to love one another(Fan,2021)?

1.2 Literature Review

Kazuo Ishiguro,as an important fiction writer in the British and even in the

contemporary world literary circle,has been widely studied by scholars and critics at

home and abroad.Kazuo Ishiguro’s two science fiction works,Never Let Me Go and

Klara and the Sun respectively discuss the topic of human cloning and artificial

intelligent robots.Relevant researches have a wide range of perspectives and apply a

variety of research paradigms.The following will integrate the research results of the

two works from both domestic and foreign separately.

1.2.1 Related Studies Abroad

Since the publication of Never Let Me Go in 2005,it has received wide attention

from foreign critics and reviews.In addition to the recurring theme of memory and

nostalgia,it has been cited in discussion on affective turn,humanity care and attitude

towards death.Furthermore,some scholars conduct interdisciplinary research from

different perspectives such as linguistic study,reader acceptance theory,spatial theory

and legal consideration.

Most of the parts in Never Let Me Go are told in the form of reminiscence,which

is Ishiguro’s preferred way of writing.Kathy H.,the clone who is working at recovery

centres,recalling the time spent with Tommy and Ruth in Hailsham and the Cottages.

The interweaving of time and the unreliability of memories brings ambiguity and

uncertainty.In a collection of essays covering the evaluation of Ishiguro’s various

works and interviews,Mark Currie(2010)takes“time”in Never Let Me Go as theChapter One Shanghai Normal University Master of Arts

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main clue,and argues that the narrative mode interlaced between the reality where

forgotten memories,happening present and wrongly expected future has shaped the

multi-level discourse in the duality of time.At the same time,the sense of modern

technology set by cloning is interwoven with the sense of nostalgia of public school,

achieving an ingenious historical future.Similarly,Nakamura(2022)regards Kathy’s

memory as a kind of nostalgia box to pick up and relive what gained and given in the

past.When Kathy recalled negative memories of close friends,she would often

reshape the nostalgia by describing things she hoped to happen.

Sentiment and affection of clones in memory are well-discussed topics by

Shaddox(2013)and Hu(2021).Shaddox finds that the consistency of Never Let Me

Go with sentimental and abolitionist literature in the 18th and 19th century.Sentiment

plays a major role in constructing Kathy’s memories.Cleverly echoing the scientific

theme in Ishiguro’s works,Hu and other researchers work together in a more

scientific way to use multifractal theory to extract emotional data and dynamic

evolution,comparing three fractal scaling analysis to calculate the emotional

fluctuations caused by narrative coherence and plot changes in novels.

“Care”as a key word in Never Let Me Go,sets the fundamental tone of the novel.

Human cloning as Kathy is looked after by boarding school.Before donations,they

are assigned to take care of their weak friends whose organs are grabbed away.In

terms of the relationship between clones,Robbins Bruce(2007)notes that characters

in Ishiguro’s novels are often unexpectedly cruel to those closest to them,and that

emotional dysfunction towards intimates is reflected in the failure of the care system

set up by the official institutions in the novel.Such description may seem banal and

commonplace,but Ishiguro stresses that it is an eternal moral duty to be kind to your

family and those around you.This tragedy of clones that happened at boarding school,

“going back and working on Victoria plots genres,and characters over the course of

their own narration”(Ishiguro,2005:115).Whitehead(2011)adds that Ishiguro’s

humanistic vision mirrors the theme of Victorian novels.Besides,clone people

develop the idea of“care”through reading Victorian novels.However,the frequent

use of the word“care”contains inherent contradictions,that is,whether it is an ability

and an occupation,or an affection and feeling.In such dilemma of care,Kathy’s

choice inspires people to balance the need of close people and others in complex

interpersonal relationships.Hillard(2019)concludes that those Victorian elements,

language and materials in Never Let Me Go,presenting Ishiguro’s homage to andChapter One Shanghai Normal University Master of Arts

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fusion of 19th century Gothic Novel,bildungsroman and female-leading novels.

Jumping out of interior relationships,the suffering of clones under authorities

provokes many comments.Titus Levy(2011)explores the sufferings of clones as

oppressed and exploited groups.Kathy’s autobiographical narration shows the

normalization of atrocity.She advocates human right and fights against the brutality

of autocratic regimes when describing unjust treatment.Whereas Tsao(2012)

compares Never Let Me Go with Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein2 in detail,considering

that either Ishiguro or Shelley upend popular imagination about religion and

biotechnology.When human assumes the role of Creator,it is an intractable situation

to reckon with life power and ethical problems of the created subject.Instead of

criticizing political authorities,Snaza(2015)concentrates on the educational

institution.She proposes that humanizing education advocated by Plato,Jean-Jacques

Rousseau and John Dewey emphasized on aesthetic experience in Hailsham

eventually leads to political intervention,rather than search for the soul and humanity

in clones.What we really need is education that does not set goals.

Clones’destiny of facing the unavoidable death enlightens critics’thinking on

life and death.Abrams(2016)interprets the brief life span of cloned human from the

perspective of Eriksonian and Jaquesian psychological development theory3.More

importantly,it points to Ishiguro’s notion that upon completing a satisfying death,and

it is necessary to trace back to the original start of life.In their adolescence,clones

perform the action of separation and individualization,while the guardians indicate

the milestone of their mid-life.Finally,Kathy completes her model for acceptance of

death,defends the dignity of life,and sets herself free.Inspired by Derrida’s theory of

death penalty,Tink(2016)responds to Robbins’s query on the question of“piety”,

and proposes that through Ishiguro’s own logic of death sentence on clones,Kathy

and her friends’longing for life is supported strongly by the power of piety.

Moreover,some scholars have analyzed the text of Never Let Me Go from the

perspective of linguistics,including pragmatics,stylistics and rhetoric.Ikeo(2015)

discovers that the figurative expression of Kathy’s narration often emerges in the form

of simile with“like”.“Like”-similes play different roles in characters’various stages

and help to promote the convergence of the clone and non-clone worlds.After

2Frankenstein;or,The Modern Prometheus is an 1818 novel written by English author Mary Shelley.Victor

Frankenstein,a young scientist who creates a sapient creature in an unorthodox scientific experiment.

3Erikson is credited with being one of the originators of the psychology of the ego,a theory that emphasizes the

role of the ego over and above the enslavement of the id.According to Erikson,the environment in which children

grow up is crucial for providing them with growth,adjustment,self-awareness and identity.Chapter One Shanghai Normal University Master of Arts

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counting the frequency of occurrence and analyzing its meaning in three parts of the

novel,Ikeo sorts out the multiple functions of similes,such as to emphasize characters’

perception and psychological conditions,to elaborate situations,and to imply the shift

in narrative attention.Pandey(2011)captures the theme and extension meaning of

“copies”in the text,examining lexical part as a whole from the perspective of

semantics.As a morpho-semantic process,Ishiguro incorporates copies into the text

and creatively uses three lexical strategies,naming polysemy,neologism and

euphemism,resulting in an alienation effect.

What’s more,Villiers and Slabbert(2011)start from the motif of existentialism,

addressing legal medical problems as cloning and living organ donation by virtue of

the interaction and symbiosis between law and literature,hence seeking a solution that

balances the need for voluntary choice and supply requirement.Rich(2015)

introduces space theory to observe infrastructuralism in the text to analyze the

relationship between human cloning and material environment,especially public

facilities and welfare institutions.And Query(2015)depends on theories of José

Ortega y Gasset and Walter Benjamin,presents readers’subjective initiative and

acceptance of work from the perspective of reception of aesthetics.

Compared with Never Let Me Go,research on Klara and the Sun is not sufficient

in both China and abroad as it has been published lately in 2021.However,scholars

show great concerns about the realistic influence from the novel,and they are looking

for practical significance of works from different perspectives,which have their own

focuses and echo each other at the same time.

Some scholars compare behaviors and motivations of machine to that of human

beings.Eaglestone(2022)argues that there are two visions of agency in Klara and the

Sun.One is demonstrated by Klara,the artificial intelligence.Following a predictable

and digital procedure,her acquisition of knowledge can be originated in Plato’s

allegory of the Cave,but she can never be able to attain the real inner freedom of the

soul.While the other is a more profound human vision,which can be clarified by

Hannah Arendt’s three modes of human condition,especially the account of action.

As an important theme in Ishiguro’s fiction,the positive idea and practice of

forgiveness breaks the endless cycle of actions,and prevents infinite pain and anger

successfully in Klara and the Sun.The contrast between these two types of agency

deals with the fundamental question of“who and what we are”.Ishiguro hence drawsChapter One Shanghai Normal University Master of Arts

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out attention to the limitation of a mechanic way of thinking,and explores

possibilities in human thinking.While Denny(2021)detects machine’s affinity with

human through comparison.She reviews that despite Klara’s limited vision and

disjointed experience,she presents a surprising and unexpected behavior with

humanity.Her unconditional love for Josie and fervent pray to the sun proves the

survival of humanity in an unusual form.

Other critics note the grand impact of capitalist background and technological

intervention.Parkes(2022)states that the concept of planned obsolescence is a major

concern in Klara and the Sun.Capitalism creates,maintains and even expands

consumer demand by producing goods that will be replaced or renewed sooner or later.

Meanwhile,obsolescence culture shows Ishiguro’s unique narrative structure with

unreliable narrators and language with placidity.Parkes also finds a sense of

coherence in all his works.From the butler Steven in The Remains of the Day to

clones in Never Let Me Go,Ishiguro keeps expressing the fears of fatigue and

substitution.It leads to a broader issue of Ishiguro’s understanding of novel as literary

form,which is the industrialization of modern novel and peril of the death of novel,

and thus causes further reflection on the fate and function of writing in the age of

digitization,technology and internet.The discussion of Mejia and Nikolaidis(2022)

integrate ideas above;meantime,focus on the influence of technology.They believe

that Ishiguro reflects the current environment and future of capitalism in the society

with emerging technologies.In addition,Klara offers a new perspective for readers to

make judgments on the characters in an uncanny distance,and ultimately onto

themselves.The unfamiliar description of over-familiarity things in mundane life

makes human rethinks the standard view about AI and the risk of falling into the

abyss of technical logic,therefore provides an opportunity for people to engage with

ethical issues in an experiential way.Overall,scholars abroad all agree that Ishiguro

copes with questions of“whether a machine has understanding”and“what is unique

about human beings”.

1.2.2 Related Studies at Home

Scholars at home have made various interpretations of Never Let Me Go from

post-human theory,ethical theory,trauma and emotion,and biopolitics perspectives,

which not only radiate each other,but also have different emphases.

Kazuo Ishiguro invents the artistic image of clone man and constructs a completeChapter One Shanghai Normal University Master of Arts

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post-human picture.In the context of post-human era,many scholars have reflected

and criticized the predicament of life,hidden dangers of science and technology,and

ethical body.Yan and Zhang(2020)perceive that Never Let Me Go not only inherits

the tradition of dystopian novels,but also demonstrates the post-human situation

under the background of modern life science and technology.Through excavating the

metaphor of clone man to human,they intend to reveal the invisible control of

political power to individual life,and inspect the value and dilemma of life of

post-human.Paying attention to the“future-present”meaning of“post-”echoing in

the post-human theory,An(2021)points to the multi-dimensional narrative in the text,

where the frontier of the body,and the boundary between subject and object radiate

with each other,showing the openness,combination and connection of life in

post-human ethics.

Numerous scholars analyze the ethical problem of human cloning from the

perspective of ethical literary criticism4.In their growth process,Kathy and Ruth are

eager to find their“possibles”.While in the face of their ultimate fate,they show their

ethical choices through their attitude towards life and death.Du(2014)finds

coherence in the ethical identity,ethical consciousness and ethical environment.Being

judged as non-human by“normal human”,clones try to establish their ethical identity

so that they can clearly understand themselves,which promotes deep thinking of the

nature of life and meaning of death.Beyond that,Xu and Li(2020)observe

nonviolence ethic in human cloning’s life through Judith Butler’s performativity and

recognition theories.By means of analyzing standardized violence and fragile state of

existence of human clone,they demonstrate that the identity of clone is a kind of

“performance”rather than“possession”.

Never Let Me Go constructs an almost real future world,in which familiar scenes

of social life contain delicate and rich emotional descriptions.Critics have variously

interpreted human and clone emotions,showing concerns for individual and collective

trauma,apathetic social realities,institutional educational strategies,and empathy.As

the narrator and witness,Kathy experiences various individual traumas and exposes

the cultural trauma of cloned groups as a whole.Li(2013)utilizes the concept of

insidious trauma to reveal the symbolic violence suffered by cloned people as

marginalized groups.Kathy makes it clear through her memory that the collective

4Ethical Literary Criticism is proposed by Prof.Nie Zhenzhao.It holds that literature is a unique expression of ethical ideas and

moral life in a particular historical stage.Edification is the essential attribute of literature,and aesthetics as the subordinate

function serves the didactic function of literature.Chapter One Shanghai Normal University Master of Arts

9

disaster was not someone else trauma,and that individuals should take the

responsibility to reflect on it and speak about it.Later,Li(2016)meditates from the

opposite perspective.Noticing that the harm caused to the victims by the legitimate

authority’s brutality in Never Let Me Go from the perspective of social production

with moral indifference,Li believes that the mass’s invisible violence against clones

makes massacre possible in the future society even with a high level of civilization

and highly developed science and technology,which may also produce a social

mechanism leading to morality undone.Centered on a more specific field,Zhou(2019)

focalizes on Hailsham,an important place where the story took place.He hints that

school treats students in an inhumane way under the cloak of humanizing education.

The paradox between the cultivation of a cloned human soul and the inevitable

donation is the root of its failure.And Zhang(2020)places Never Let Me Go into the

background of western medical humanities and investigates the relationship between

doctors and patients reflected in it from the angle of empathy.

The theory of biopolitics,which is closely related to this paper,has been

mentioned by critics as a research perspective.Zhang and Qian(2018)reveal

Ishiguro’s criticism on implicit political violence and life power oppression with the

theory of bare life and exceptional state in Agamben’s biopolitical theory.The lives of

cloned human are legally suspended in the routine isolation of space.Besides,three

different angles are chosen in Zhi Yunbo’s successive arguments.First,Zhi(2021a)

combines biopolitics with Ethopolitics proposed by Nikolas Rose,and dissects

Kathy’s life practice of consciously shaping the subject while being standardized and

collectivized.Still from the perspective of biopolitics,Zhi(2021b)puts forward that

the cruel situation of human cloning comes from the governance logic and operation


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